MILWAUKEE—Last April, Mark Pope set out on what he described as a “terrifying process” to rebuild the Kentucky Wildcats program from scratch.
He inherited no scholarship players, the expectations of a program that expects championships and the weight of getting Kentucky’s swagger back after a slew of March collapses. The transfer portal wasn’t short of options, but this type of one-season flip was largely unprecedented … especially at one of the sport’s bluebloods. Where to even begin?
